Category Archives: Social Media

Hear ye, hear ye! Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge arrived last Saturday and as to be expected, the world is still buzzing about her grand entrance. After much anticipation, the news of the little bundle of joy spread quickly and social media nearly exploded with the reveal that William and Kate gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

As the #1 topic that was trending globally, people from all over the world joined in the conversation about the new princess. Here are some fun social media facts and stats about the #RoyalBaby’s arrival:

The tweet sent by @KensingtonRoyal announcing the birth, “Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a daughter at 8:34am” was retweeted 47,000 times and favorited 42,000 times.

Not only did the announcement garner over a million tweets, but the conversations peaked at 4,500 tweets per minute around 11:34am according to Twitter.

According to the DailyMail, “Hashtracking reveals that the majority of people posting about the baby were women (61%) and the highest proportion of tweets were surprisingly sent from the U.S. (23%).

The announcement of Princess Charlotte’s birth topped the arrival of her big brother as she received over 1 million #RoyalBaby tweets while Prince George’s birth generated only 900,000.

The tweet revealing the name, “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Diana” was shared and favorited more than 92,980 times.

More than 300,000 tweets mentioning ‘Charlotte’ were made following the name confirmation.

Not only were news outlets and people everywhere posting about the #RoyalBaby, but also a number of big brands took the opportunity to chime in the baby banter on social media. Here are a few of my favorite tweets from big brands:

The @Disney Royal Babies gave Princess Charlotte a royal welcome with this fun video clip:

I loved seeing all of the baby banter that has been going on and loved that many brands used this real-time event to engage their followers. This is a great example of brands thinking outside of their “strictly promotional” box and coming up with creative ways to stay relevant in the conversation.

May 7, 2002, a day that will forever be remembered as the greatest NBA press conference in history or least the press conference that created a timeless quotable. The date when Allen Iverson questioned “Practice? We’re talkin about practice, man.”

(Full disclosure, the Sixers are my favorite team and I believe Allen Iverson is one of the greatest players of all time.)

Thirteen years later, we’re still talking about practice. This is a quote I use on a regular basis, as recently as Monday night I used it at my kickball game. I used it in a blog a few months ago. It has taken on a whole life outside of that press conference, been parodied by comedians, referenced by other athletes, paid homage to on t-shirts and much more.

If you’re reading this, you probably have already done your Allen Iverson “practice?” impersonation out loud or replayed it in your head. So, now that we have got that out of the way, let’s talk about a few social media practices. Don’t worry, I didn’t click bait you with the Iverson story. I really wanted to talk about it, but this is, after all, a professional blog and I figured it was a good tie-in.

Here are five social media practices, which while known, often seem to slip through the cracks.

Questions are a great way to engage your community. It makes your fans and followers feel involved. Do not just talk at them, talk with them. Keep your questions short, simple and to the point. “Are you talking about practice?”

Asking for a retweet, this is a practice which I know a lot of people say they are against, but when used right, it’s effective. If you have a strong opinion or emotional photo, this could be the time to rally your troops. Use sparingly, otherwise it will be like crying wolf and will have negative effects.

You have a story to tell, get it out there. Make sure you sure you have options for people to share your blog posts or articles through other social media platforms. It lets your story grow outside of your own site and increases readership.

Your social media voice should be the voice of your company, not an employee. Define it and ride with it. If the person handling your social media ends up not working there anymore, it should not be obvious to your readers. If the ball is ever dropped, it should be able to easily and seamlessly be picked up by anyone on your team.

You can never take your online community for granted. You do not need to fawn over them, but you need to make sure to thank them and make them feel appreciated. They are an extension of you. Online and offline, you want them cheering on your side.

Are there any memorable sports quotes you find yourself bringing up at work? What other social media practices do you think people sometimes forget or should try to improve?

As always, I welcome your comments and if you like what you read, be social and share.

Networking events can be a great way to expand your personal Rolodex and your business. However, the key to truly getting the most out of networking events is not so much what you do at the event, but what you do after that makes a big difference. Post-event follow up is crucial to building long-lasting relationships and beneficial business connections.

Many of us are guilty of falling short on the follow up process after events and may be missing out on some great business opportunities. Even though it can be time consuming, taking a few minutes to follow up will create long-term relationships and is the key to a successful business.

Here are a few tips on how to follow up with new contacts after networking events:

Do some research
Check out your new contact’s website or do a Google search to see if they have been featured in any articles. This will give you the opportunity to get some insight on their business and see exactly what they do. Most importantly, it may give you some ideas or speaking points for when you connect with them via email.

Reach out immediately
Don’t let your new contact’s business card sit on your desk for months or only reach out to them when you need something. Send them an email within 48 hours of your networking event to remind them of who you are, what you do and recap anything you discussed. This will begin the conversation and the relationship building process.

Connect on social media
Shortly after sending the email, be sure to connect with your new contact on LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter and Facebook. This will help you stay up-to-date on anything they are working on and may give you a perfect reason to reconnect later down the road (i.e. say Happy Birthday or congratulate them on an accomplishment).

Give first
It’s understood that in networking situations that you are going to ask people for assistance, but giving a helping hand first will prove that you are a valuable connection. Make an email introduction or refer some business to them before you ask them for something. Your new contact will appreciate the thought and will most likely return the favor.
Meet in person
Connecting face-to-face can be very powerful and will only help cultivate the business relationship by creating a rapport. Whether it’s for lunch, a drink or a cup of coffee, don’t underestimate the power of being in the same room. Not only will you be able to fill your new contact in on what you are working on, but you can also brainstorm some ideas on how to work together.
Reconnect frequently
Try to stay in touch with your new contact any way that you can. Send them a quick email to catch up or relevant article, set up another meeting or invite them to an event on a monthly basis. This will keep you on the forefront of his/her mind and will foster a lasting relationship.

I hope you found these tips to be helpful and that they will assist you in developing a strong business network. Best of luck with your next networking event!
As always, if you like what you read be social and share.

They say that, “desperate times call for desperate measures,” and it appears as though the world’s largest fast food chain may be facing some hardships. With sales and stocks declining, McDonald’s has been testing out a variety of tactics in hopes to keep people coming back to the “Golden Arches.”

From changing up the way in which the food is served to restructuring their messaging, the fast food giant has been trying to keep up with the ever-changing eating habits of Americans. Today, we are living in a much more health-conscious society where people are concerned with things like gluten and want to be educated on where their food came from, how it was raised and how it was prepared. This presents an issue for companies like McDonald’s where their food items are mass-produced and they may not be as willing to share the way in which they make/create their menu items.

In an attempt to remedy this issue, McDonald’s launched a new multimedia campaign called “Our Food. Your Questions,” in an effort to be completely transparent and answer the questions of customers and critics alike. The campaign asked people to tweet their questions such as, “Why can’t I get a McRib year-round?” and “What is actually in a Chicken McNugget?” to create an open dialog. In addition to trying to engage the public, McDonald’s has been in the process of releasing a series of videos answering some of the questions that have been submitted.

This week, McDonald’s released another video that revealed the contents of their famous Chicken McNuggets. What was once rumored to be made of “pink slime” and mystery meat, the McDonald’s dispelled the myth by taking viewers “behind-the-scenes” to show them the process of the nugget-making at a Tyson plant in Tennessee (that uses real chicken, SHOCKER!). This is just one of many videos that will be released during this campaign with the goal of showing people they offer “quality” food.

However, I personally question if the decline in sales is due to the validity or transparency of how the food is made or if it is attributed to the lack of healthy menu items. While, I have consumed many chicken nuggets in my lifetime, the reason I no longer choose to eat at McDonald’s is because the food on the menu is so unhealthy. Whether you are eating a salad or a Big Mac, the calories and fat content in almost all of their items is very high. While I applaud their efforts to be transparent, I think they need to add more healthy items in order to get people coming back for more. I will be interested to see how this campaign works out for McDonald’s and to gauge the public’s reaction.